Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Winterfell - The Veil Of Summer - 2005 - Self Released

Track Listing 1. Threnody 2. Autumn Knight 3. The Iris 4. Legacy 5. Asatru 6. Once And Again 7. Campaign Of Shadows 8. The Begger King 9. Catacombs

There's been a degree of animosity between me and the boys of Winterfell in the past. I came across their demo one day via the net and their obvious attempts at cloning a band I love left me a bit disgusted to be honest. I mean I can understand being inspired by a band but their demo was sheer theft without an original idea on the thing. It all culminated with a heated discussion with one of the members and I kind of forgot the band existed until this one got thrown into my lap.

Well I figured I'd give it a chance. I mean that was just a demo and maybe they've expanded on their sound since that right? Well those hopes were thrown out the window pretty quickly upon hearing the band's debut. The band claims the vocal sound, etc are merely coincidence but I've gotta call BS here. This is just outright robbery and think about it... they're stealing from a man who doesn't have that many ideas in the first place. I love Iced Earth but they're not known for being a veritable fountain of riffs and new song structures. Taking bits and pieces of that without adding anything is not going to work. Actually they've taken away a good deal of Iced Earth's strengths here. The singer sticks to that one emotive Barlow sound without touching much on his harsher vocals or high end. The guitar on this actually reminds me of the boring, plodding stuff on the latest Demons & Wizards and even comes complete with the same acoustic sounding passages. This is just grade D Schaffer. There's no way around it.

Unless you're really jonesing for new Iced Earth with Barlow and can deal with this being a poor attempt at clonage then there's no reason to listen to this. Even some of the themes, the bands name, and slogan 'Winter Is Coming' are taken from a series of books for fuck's sake. But to end on a positive note... it's probably better sounding than "The Glorious Burden".

Highlights: No

Rating - 2.0


--Stygian Steel 09.24.05